Reverse Engineering the firmware

[Dogbert]

Hi!

Has there been any attempt (yet) to reverse engineer the firmware (which is completely legal, btw, as long as one doesn't modify/hack it)?

For comparison, the Apple iPod is able to run linux due to a few ppl who managed to extract vital information from the apple firmware (http://ipodlinux.sf.net). And there is an excellent firmware called 'Rockbox' for a few archos players (http://rockbox.haxx.se/). It would be nice if there would be a way to create an alternative firmware for the iRiver in order to get rid of the shabby original.

So far, I have found these documents which should help:

http://www.ihplounge.com/semincond1.html - a complete disassembly of the iRiver, including some links to the data sheets of some internal chips - the site itself is unfortunately only available in german for the time being while the data sheets are all english

http://www.iriver.com/community/sugg...=read&idx=2488 - a tool to decode/encode the firmware files from iriver

The next questions to solve would be:
1. What happens if the firmware upgrade fails? Is there a way to re-flash a working firmware other than unsoldering the SST 39VF160 FlashROM (which should be quite hard due to its package)?
2. What's the entry point of the firmware?
3. Are there any other 'protections' against flashing an unofficial firmware than the en-/decryption mechanisms?

[PYROTAK]

i wish there was a search button.

and the answer is yes there have been attempts made, use the search to find out more.

[Dogbert]

whoops, my fault - I limited my search to the iHP forum and missed the important posting. sorry for this.

[PYROTAK]

its ok, happens to everyone